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NORMAN CROOM-JOHNSON, LL.B. (LOND.) SOLICITOR. 85, CORRINGHAM ROAD, GOLDERS GREEN, LONDON 2 June 1919 Dear Colonel Buchan. At the risk of boring you I feel I must send you a word of very genuine thanks for "Mr. Standfast." In these days when our modern school of novelists seems to think its sole duty is to write morbidly uninteresting books about morbidly uninteresting people it is a joy to feel that there is at least one writer who rallies without shame to the Stevensonian standard, & who can not only describe Stevenson's - or any other country, but stir one's blood in the right Stevensonian manner. Of the Richard Hannay trilogy I think the latest is the best, if only because it is the longest, and the last few chapters are epic. If in the official history of the War which rumour has it you are writing you are going to convey half so vividly the rush and swirl of those first days' fighting in the March Offensive of 1918 it will be a book worth waiting for. Forgive these lines from a perfect stranger, and believe one to be Yours with sincere gratitude Norman Croom-Johnson